The Pirate Bay completes switch to magnet links

After announcing more than two years ago that they intended to stop supporting .torrent links, The Pirate Bay has made the switch to "trackerless" magnet links official yesterday. In a post on their official blog, the team said the switch marked the end of an era, sort of.

"TPB will no longer give out links to .torrent files. The reason is simple: They're just a waste of space and our time," the blog post read. "Instead we're giving you Magnet links. It's simpler for us and no more hassle for you. It's more resilient than .torrent files and it uses much less bandwidth for those who wants to mirror. Also, since the magnet links are just a hash, it's on every single torrent detail page - so no one knows that you actually downloaded a file or not."

Another major reason for the change, according to TBP is the fact it’s virtually impossible to block the magnet links without blocking the data contained within the webpage, making it harder to prevent access to the files.

As of yesterday, every torrent file being shared by more than ten people will have been replaced by the new magnet links. As a result, the torrent information will be downloaded from those that have already downloaded the files, and not from TPB’s central servers.

"It shouldn’t make much of a difference for the average user. At most it will take a few more seconds before a torrent shows the size and files," TPB said when speaking to Torrent Freak yesterday. "Just click the red button instead of the green one and all will be fine."

For files being shared by less than ten people, the original .torrent link will remain for now, in order to maintain availability of those files to those searching for them on TPB’s website. The site also recommends that users have DHT and PEX enabled in their torrent clients, as explained in a previous article by Torrent Freak.

The site and its founders have had their fair share of dealings with law enforcement agencies over the years, and this move is apparently necessary in order to best protect against takedowns in the future. The switch means the site consumes a fraction of the resources it previously required, and could even run off a decent home connection now, the TPB team stated.